“He was still mad, telling me the game wasn’t over,” Fields said. “I was excited for Coach. As good as he’s been for this university, and picking up where Coach (Ben) Howland left off, the biggest knock had been not having a Final Four appearance and not getting past the Sweet 16.

“This is just a step toward that. I just wanted to embrace him, because he deserves it.”

With the victory, Pitt tied the school record for most wins (31) in a season. Both 31-win seasons (2003-04 was the other) have come under Dixon’s direction. The senior class of Fields, Sam Young and Tyrell Biggs now can call itself the winningest class in school history at 112-30.

But none of those numbers registered with the Panthers or their fans. The pressure was all tied to getting past this point.

Even though Pitt had advanced to the Sweet 16 in five of the past eight seasons, this group had been constantly reminded about their inability to get over that hump. Dixon, like any good coach, has constantly tried to downplay the fact that Pitt never had advanced to the Elite Eight in a 64-team NCAA tournament. Pitt was there in 1974, when the tournament consisted of 32 teams. And the Panthers were in the Final Four in 1941 when only eight teams participated in the event.

So Thursday was historic for Pitt, but Dixon wasn’t hosting a party in his hotel room. He anticipated staying up all night with his assistants, planning for Saturday’s game against Villanova. There wouldn’t be any champagne toasts or noisemakers for winning a Sweet 16 game.

“If it was easy to get to the Sweet 16, more teams would do what we’ve done,” Dixon said. “Only two teams (Duke and Kansas, six each) have gotten there (more) than we have. So, it’s an accomplishment. But somehow we’ve turned the Sweet 16 into a bad thing — and it’s not. It’s a good thing.”

Dixon’s players were a bit more excited.

“That’s cool,” said center DeJuan Blair, who woke up from another first-half nap to finish with 10 points and 17 rebounds.

“It definitely means a lot for us as players, the coaches and for the city,” said Young, who kept Pitt in the game with his 11 first-half points. “It’s something that everybody has been waiting on for a long time, for us to give them that pleasure.

“But at the same time, we feel like we’ve still got work to do.”

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Mark J. Terrill / AP

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